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Poison pen? Luvcat has a thing for Dr John Cooper Clarke
Love is strange. It can manifest in many forms - from individual physical and behavioural obsessions, even to non-human attraction - robots and animals. Guest playlister ShivSidecar expertly explores these Agony Aunt questions, inspired by last week’s topic
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Simmering power? That’s Cat Power
Renewed, re-imagined, whether by the same artist or covered by another, with a stripped back, unplugged sound, a song can be opened up anew in emotions and lyrics. Guest Loud Atlas artfully explores the magic of the acoustic, inspired by last week’s topic
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Time to grab a different instrument …
Revamped and newly performed by the original artists or as covers by others, the unplugged, undistorted and stripped back acoustic version can bring new feeling, meaning, audible lyrics and sometimes a sense of a whole new song
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Unchained vocals: Big Mama Thornton
Shackled or bound by love’s emotions, our DNA or the constraints of body or mind in and out of slavery or imprisonment, guest of the week MussoliniHeadkick finds all the right links to pull listeners in
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Mic King: Nat King Cole
How do you demonstrate the craft of crooning? It brings a broader range than you imagine. After the many nominations springing from last week’s topic, defining as all about style and using the microphone, guest playlister ParaMhor brings some perfect performance picks …
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Goblin: legendary Italian creators of the 1977 Suspiria soundtrack
After a marvellously monstrous nomination response to this topic, guest playlister Amylee picks out a huge house of horror to be enjoyed, from scary soundtracks to freaky folk traditional, zombie rock apocalypses to gruesome gore. The devil has all the best tunes …
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Planet pop: the Roland Jupiter 8
The classic keyboards, the hair, and drum sounds, experimenting and changing over two vibrant decades. From a huge wave of nominations, guest pop picker MussoliniHeadkick brings a special edition of the Top of the Pops chart. Ready for the countdown?
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Synth you’ve been gone …
Following a previous topic that went up to 1983, this week we explore the arc of this music’s sonic history through a new era of MIDI and digital, from the Fairlight CMI to the Roland TR-808 and beyond, and in lyrical pop songs more than instrumentals
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Shhh! It’s Björk
What does it mean to have quiet in your life? Inspired by hundreds of song nominations from last week’s topic, guest playlister DiscoMonster, puts together music through the prism of a story about truths, conflict and stillness
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Altogether now ....
The lyrics are about dark matters, but they are played with extremely contrasting upbeat music. This week let’s explore songs that, through stark contrast, can unlock humour, tragedy, comedy and empathy
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Eleven? That's one louder.
From soft to loud in vivid variety, this week we look into musical works that test our headphones and master the control of decibel and frequency, bringing subtlety and surprises to our ears
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Saint or sinner? A singer from this week's A-list bows in martyr mode ... Photograph: Amy Jett
St Louis to St Vitus, Malcolm X to Bauhaus's Stigmata Martyr, this week's playlists selected by Song Bar's regular TatankaYotanka from last week's topic come with a particularly poetic air
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